During rush hour on Friday April 8th, you'll have something better to look at than swerving cars and orange construction cones -- a partial eclipse of the Sun. Out of everyone in the United States, South Florida residents have the best seat in the house to witness this strange phenomenon.
The Moon will partially cross the face of the Sun as viewed by those of us in South Florida. The eclipse begins at 5:20 pm and ends at 7:13 pm. For South Florida, the eclipse will reach maximum coverage at 6:20 pm with a little more than 40 percent of the Sun’s disk blocked out by the Moon.
This will not be a total eclipse (when the Moon completely blocks out the Sun). Instead, this eclipse will be a hybrid eclipse, also known as an annular-total eclipse (don't worry -- I'm about to explain what that means).
The eclipse will start out as an annular eclipse, become total and then finish as an annular eclipse. This strange phenomenon occurs due to the curvature of the Earth, where the vertex of the Moon’s umbral shadow touches some regions of the Earth (total eclipse), but the shadow falls short in other areas (annular eclipse).
Here is a cool photo of an annual eclipse, courtesy of Northern Arizona University.
The path of the greatest eclipse will cover a mere 0.06 percent of the Earth’s surface along its 8,800-mile corridor that stretches from southeast of New Zealand to Venezuela. The partial eclipse, however, will be visible over a much broader region of the Earth.
Even though we will see more than 40 percent of the Sun blocked out by the Moon, remember that it is never safe to look at the Sun. Looking at the Sun, even during an eclipse can be very damaging to your eyes.
One way to view this event is to project the image of the Sun through a telescope and watch the Moon cross the Sun. A second option is to use a safe solar filter to hold up directly at the Sun to observe the eclipse. You can also build a simple projector out of cardboard. There are a lot sites on the Internet that can tell you how to do this. I recommend this site. It gives you a few options and is very easy to understand.
Of course, none of these viewer options are safe for drivers during rush-hour traffic so plan to leave work early -- or better yet, take the day off and prepare to enjoy the eclipse.
If you have any questions, post a comment and I'll answer it shortly.
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4 comments:
This blog is great for anyone. You dont have to be a science buff, you may be a buffoon, but either way it is way cool. I have a younger sibling who loves to take out his telescope and explore, but with the help of Chris's blog, we can actually identify what we are looking at!
The sky is really neat, especially when you know what you are looking for.
Can I watch it if I wear sunglasses? ;) jk
Kneazel
Wow Mr. Chris,
I remember when you taught Space Science to me at SFSM holeschool classes.
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